Grid Magazine December 2021 [#151]

■

■

■

Bike lane parkers get what’s coming to them— a ticket

Barber studio eschews the binary

Tossing single-use containers forever

p. 16

p. 24

p. 6

DECEMBER 2021 / ISSUE 151 / GRIDPHILLY.COM

T O W A R D A S U S TA I N A B L E P H I L A D E L P H I A

BUILDING UP We Love Philly students flourish with real world, hands-on experiences page 26

Carlos Aponte, founder and executive director of We Love Philly, and student Semya Dennis.

ORGANIC LOCAL FAMILY–OWNED Kimberton Whole Foods is your one-stop shop for organic produce, raw dairy, local meats and cheeses, specialty items, baked goods, supplements, body care and more.

NEWLY EXPANDED STORE! COLLEGEVILLE 222 East Main St

DOUGLASSVILLE 1139 Ben Franklin Highway West

DOWNINGTOWN 150 East Pennsylvania Ave

KIMBERTON 2140 Kimberton Rd

MALVERN 429 East King Rd

OTTSVILLE 4010 Durham Rd

kimbertonwholefoods.com

Ray Daly Philadelphia, PA raysreusables.com @rays_reusables TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF Ray’s Reusables began with transforming trashed jeans into practical everyday items, and denim up-cycling is still something that I really love. Over the last year and a half or so, it has taken a back seat to projects like making masks and creating the refill van, which admittedly takes up the majority of my time now.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED? I started upcycling denim because I couldn’t bear to throw away all my jeans that ripped through in the thigh. I felt that there was so much fabric that it would be a huge waste to just toss it all. I was trying to live more sustainably and one of the first swaps that I made was to carry reusable cutlery with me, so when the idea for a cutlery roll made from the back pocket of jeans (ft. a tiny napkin in that pocket) came to me I started sewing!

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS? I want to offer people an entry into sustainable living that’s nonjudgmental and accessible. Sometimes I think that people think of it as this members-only club, and I want people to feel like they can ask questions and learn more about changing their habits without worrying about not being in the know.

D ECE M B E R 20 21

G R I DP HI LLY.COM

1

EDI TO R ’S NOTES

by

alex mulcahy

publisher Alex Mulcahy managing editor Alexandra W. Jones associate editor & distribution Timothy Mulcahy tim@gridphilly.com copy editor Geoff Smith art director Michael Wohlberg writers Bernard Brown Nichole Currie Nic Esposito Constance Garcia-Barrio Alexandra W. Jones Patrick Kerr Randy LoBasso Claire Marie Porter Lois Volta photographers Chris Baker Evens Linette Kielinski Rachael Warriner illustrator Sean Rynkewicz Lois Volta published by Red Flag Media 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.625.9850 G R I D P H I L LY. C O M

2

GR ID P H IL LY.CO M

DEC EM BE R 2021

A

bout 10 years ago, I had a crazy idea—one I didn’t quite have the guts to do myself. It was to host a live event structured as a talk show where I would interview people who had appeared in Grid. My feeling was that, no matter how much I love print, there was nothing quite as powerful as hearing the exciting and charismatic people in our magazine telling their stories in their own voices.

I prefer one-on-one conversations to the spotlight, but I thought this idea had some value and potentially could be fun. So I called my friend Nic Esposito, someone who seemed not at all intimidated by the bright lights and holding court for a crowd. In fact, he seemed to relish it.

While others were skeptical of the idea, when I pitched it to Nic he jumped at it.

Before long, we were doing pre-interviews for the show and practicing our opening monologue, replete with corny jokes. Nic’s social circle included a few musicians, and he invited the band The Great Unknown to play the first show.

I was utterly terrified the night of the first Grid Alive, but I remember being “backstage” at Trinity Memorial Church, at 22nd and Spruce streets, needing to calm my nerves, and Nic began walking around clucking like a chicken, and encouraged me to do the same. I think it had something to do with the TV show “Arrested Development,” but I can’t remember. Either way, the frantic energy was channeled, and the night turned out to be a great success. We did a half dozen more of those shows, and they remain some of my fondest memories of Grid.

Nic is an ambitious guy, and much of his work has been documented in this magazine.

In fact, just last month Nic was quoted about the role he played in creating a partnership between Bennett Compost and the

city government while he worked for Parks & Recreation before transitioning to lead the city’s Zero Waste and Litter Cabinet.

If you jump back 138 issues to April 2010, we ran a cover story heralding him in his “flannel shirt, beard, [and] muddy boots” as an emerging voice in urban farming activism.

We’ve covered the novel he wrote, books he’s edited, the nonprofit publishing company he founded called The Head & The Hand, and recently Circular Philadelphia, the advocacy group he launched with Samantha Wittchen and Julie Hancher of Green Philly.

I couldn’t be more excited to tell you that Nic has joined the team here at Grid. He will serve as our Director of Operations, which means he will have his hands in all aspects of this undertaking. He’s begun his tenure by writing this month’s cover story about We Love Philly, a program we believe could serve as a blueprint for rethinking our public schools.

Nic’s energy level, enthusiasm and ambition are undiminished since I met him over a decade ago. His face may not be as bearded as it used to be, but he’s still farming in the city with his wife Elisa (and two kids) at Emerald Street Community Farm.

We are hatching some bold plans for Grid across all of our platforms. I don’t want to make any announcements just yet, but know that exciting things are in the works.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m pushed out of my comfort zone, backstage clucking like a chicken again. I’m getting nervous just thinking about it, and I can’t wait.

ALEX MULCAHY Editor-in-Chief alex@gridphilly.com COV E R P HOTO G RAP H BY L IN ETTE K I ELI NSKI

I L LU S T R AT E D P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

Grid Alive II

TH E VO LTA WAY

by

lois volta

DEAR LOIS,

W

hen i trained in martial arts, my instructor taught me that “good form will carry me through.” There were times when I felt so tired that I became sloppy and let my guard down, which would get me punched in the face. I learned that when I became more technical and understood the movement, I was aware of the need to keep my hands up and have good form. Poor form wastes energy and leads to unfavorable results.

To have good form you must engage all of your senses. For instance, when you are washing the dishes you can be aware of:

4

GRID P H I L LY.CO M

DEC EM BE R 20 21

➤

➤

➤

➤ ➤ ➤

The products you are using and their impact on the environment Your posture—how your body feels and how you feel about your body The mechanics and techniques of how to do a good job The noises around you Your breathing The heart behind it all

I’ve noticed that there are priority tiers when it comes to matters that are addressed at home. As a single mom there is a lens through which I look at life to maximize my efficiency. The tiers look like a towering

mountain when I can’t seem to stay on top of things. We all know that our value does not lie in how productive we are, but many don’t realize that not being productive can be a privilege.

As a single parent who can’t afford a nanny, chauffeur or personal assistant, there are an exorbitant amount of things that need to be balanced, especially with multiple children. Time for leisure, restoration and fun costs something to those whose time is limited and days are full. Finding domestic support and balance where you can is invaluable.

When my home becomes a place of “the things I have to do,” I feel overwhelmed.

There is always something that needs to be done. How could I possibly add x, y and z if my life doesn’t allow me a clean tub to take a bath in? How is it that I can’t keep my bathroom clean? This causes me to feel trapped in my own prison of responsibilities, and that feeling sucks the pleasure out of life.

There are always areas in our lives where we have to pare down what we do or the things we indulge in. There are many times that I have justified binge-watching TV or wasting hours on meaningless drivel. However, that’s when I seem to feel more anxious—I know that a big to-do list is haunting me and I never truly find the escape that I was looking for.

I think about good form carrying me through when I am feeling overwhelmed at home with all of the pots on the stove, work deadlines and family responsibilities.

When I clean as I go, tidy as I walk through a room and never go up or down the stairs IL LUSTRATIO N BY LO IS VOLTA

P O R T R A I T BY J A M E S B O Y L E

How do you keep up with daily priorities and expectations?

...there will always be something that has to get done so keeping on top of things is important.” empty-handed, I become a well-oiled machine. From there, I can add fun stuff like having friends over or canning vegetables from my garden. I can enjoy my take on the art form of domesticity without feeling like I’m drowning in chores. When I find my own personal groove I become stronger, more alert, have fewer setbacks and can have more fun enjoying life.

The home is a dynamic, living space and within its walls it carries so many functions.

The truth is, there will always be something that has to get done so keeping on top of things is important. We work so hard—for what? To come home to a house that is a mess, out of control and gives us anxiety?

Home and what happens in it should be a top priority for our well-being.

Living in grace gives us flexibility, ease and helps us to cultivate good form. Learning an art takes patience. Take the time to become a student of your own behaviors to bring awareness, meaning and balance to your rituals and responsibilities. ◆ lois volta is a home life consultant, artist and founder of The Volta Way. Send questions to info@thevoltaway.com.

Honoring Childhood

Sustainable Practices

Dedicated Staff

Organic Lunch Program

Graduates That Make A Difference

Education that matters Schedule your tour today for our Early Childhood through 12th Grade programs.

Contact: admissions@kimberton.org

410 W. Seven Stars Rd Phoenixville, PA

kimberton.org

610.933.3635 ext 108

D ECE M B E R 20 21

G R I DP HI LLY.COM

5

sponsored content

Vertical Horizon

We need to build up, but with intention and smart design

N

ot quite 140 years ago, the Home Insurance Building, the world’s first skyscraper, was built in Chicago. Made with fireproofed iron frame structures, it was a bold construction that reflected a confident and powerful culture. Faced with a scarcity of land, tall buildings are testaments to mankind’s ingenuity and ability to defy limitations.

At least temporarily. As the world population hurtles toward 10 billion, and more and more people move to urban areas, building taller and denser cities seems to have shifted to an urgent imperative.

Peng Du, the new director of the Master of Urban Design— Future Cities Program at Thomas Jefferson University, believes this to be true, but he doesn’t blindly advocate for “vertical urbanism.” He questions conventional thinking, and it sometimes leads him to radical thoughts.

For example, Dr. Du has advanced the idea that, in the face of climate change, some cities that are too close to bodies of water might have to be abandoned eventually, and that new cities should be situated in places that would be more hospitable in a changing world. This idea might sound crazy to many people, but evidence began to emerge to back up his thinking.

“People were hearing, ‘this is a 1,000 year event,’ meaning something that happens once every 1,000 years statistically. But then we realized, we’re hearing that term more and more often. That means we are more vulnerable than ever to natural disasters. A few years ago, Joko Widodo, the President of Indonesia, announced they will move the capital city from Jakarta, which is sinking steadily. It will no longer be livable in the next few decades. They made the plan, and they’re going to move the capital city to somewhere safer.”

Dr. Du also did some research questioning whether or not the accepted wisdom that urban living was less resource intensive than life in the suburbs. He concluded that it was, but only if city dwellers don’t use cars as their primary mode of transportation. Too often they do.

“That’s something we have to change.

Tall buildings need to be integrated with urban infrastructure, for example, mass transit-oriented development, public transportation, pedestrian paths, bike lanes and open green spaces.”

One way to combat the need for cars, Dr. Du believes, is to have more amenities within tall buildings. He points to China’s Shanghai Tower, currently the second tallest building in the world, which has significant, multi-story tall, communal spaces every 10 floors.

“You don’t have to go down to street level to meet your friends in this communal, open public space. I think that breaks the barriers. In just a pure functional space, people are trapped in a glass ceiling box. There’s even no natural ventilation. All this needs to be changed. Not on the street level, but also in the sky, to have people more engaged with the city.”

These are the kind of challenging ideas students at Jefferson will be presented with in the Master of Urban Design Program.

The city of the future is open for debate, but there are two pillars upon which all of their design will be based.

“Climate change and people’s health are two critical issues, and this is something we are addressing here at Jefferson. We have established very strong partnerships with leading architectural and urban design firms and universities not just locally but across the world. We create a lot of opportunities for students in their design projects, with the possibility of international travel, research and other collaborations. We prepare the students that have the vision of future cities with the concrete tools they need to learn to make that happen.”

Jefferson’s College of Architecture and the Built Environment is to educate the next generation of design and construction professionals to create an equitable and sustainable future.

Learn more at Jefferson.edu/Grid.

THE MISSION OF

6

GRID P H I L LY.CO M

DEC EM BE R 20 21

Domestic work is everyone’s work.

That’s why we are here- to radically redefine roles in the household. Born from experience in both cleaning and the counseling realms, we empower people to develop healthier home life skills, so their spaces can serve them better.

Book your session: TheVoltaWay.com Whole-Home, Room and Closet Organization, Step by Step Decluttering and Simplifying, Deep Home Cleaning and Holistic Lifestyle Coaching

Volta is hiring cleaners: build physical strength, experience immediate results for your work, and join empowered professional women redefining the reality of domestic work

D ECE M B E R 20 21

G R I DP HI LLY.COM

7

bike talk

That’s the Ticket PPA pilot program aims to stop brazen motorists from parking in bike and bus lanes by randy lobasso

P

a r k i n g h a s ru i n e d —a n d continues to ruin—cities.

Don’t believe me? Just go to any zoning board hearing or street engineering meeting—or better yet, talk to your neighbors. You will likely hear that there’s not enough parking in your part of town, and any changes to the streets, or the landscape, or bringing in more residents, 8 GRID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 20 21

will just make it worse.

Bad parking politics lead to gentrification and unsafe streets, and have done an untold amount of damage to the environment.

Parking politics forces folks to make unsustainable transportation choices, and bad parking can block fire trucks and garbage trucks from accessing narrow city streets.

The main complaint I get from cyclists is

that they don’t feel safe because motorists feel entitled to pull over and park in bike lanes on a whim. The lack of enforcement over daily violations creates a lawless car culture.

A survey in Portland, Oregon, found that 60% of residents were “interested but concerned” regarding commuting by bicycle. I think it’s safe to say that this reticence is because those in power too often value motor vehicle parking over everything—including human life.

For that reason, I’ve spent much of my time at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia trying to incrementally rein in parking politics as they relate to bicycle infrastructure. And over the past few months, we’ve worked to put together what could be a game changer at the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA)—a pilot program that will put enforcement officers on bicycles to specifically enforce bike and bus lane violations.

The program will take place in Center City and University City, from Columbus Boulevard to 40th Street, from Spring Garden to Bainbridge Street. It will be limited to five officers for the time being, with the understanding that it would likely take 35 officers to cover the entire city.

Getting officers on bikes to patrol bike and bus lanes would make the enforcement of these dangerous blockages more efficient.

It would also cut down on the potential involvement of armed police officers.

The pilot is partially based on a program that already exists in Toronto. Beginning in 2017, “bike lane guardian” and Toronto police officer Kyle Ashley began ticketing motorists parked illegally in bike lanes while getting around the city on two wheels.

After a successful campaign by Ashley, the Toronto Police Service expanded the bike parking team.

The team engaged audiences on social media, and in addition to saving lives on the streets, became a positive force online.

Some of their ticketing actions have even gone viral on TikTok. The announcement of the pilot in September 2021 made Philadelphia one of just a handful of cities where bike lane enforcement is conducted specifically by officers on bicycles.

Better ticketing of the motorists who disrespect laws for parking and idling in rights of way will, we hope, help cut down on this sort of behavior.

IL LUSTRATIO N BY S EAN RY NKEWI CZ

I recently began meeting and working with PPA board member and Republican City Commissioner Al Schmidt and Deputy Commissioner Michelle Montalvo on this issue, in an attempt to figure out how the PPA could better serve Philadelphians who ride bicycles and other mobility devices.

As is well known, Schmidt has become nationally recognized as one of local officials who successfully defended democracy last year during the presidential election, despite efforts to circumvent that process.

What’s especially encouraging about this change is that it is already having ripple effects. In October the Center City Residents’ Association (CCRA) sent a letter, signed by association president Richard Gross, to the Philadelphia Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability asking for a new loading zone pilot to be done in conjunction with the PPA’s pilot.

“We read with interest the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s announcement that it was forming a special, bicycle-mounted unit of enforcement officers. Their mission: Write tickets for motor vehicles parked illegally in

Getting officers on bikes to patrol bike and bus lanes would make the enforcement of these dangerous blockages more efficient. bike lanes and bus lanes in Center City and University City,” the letter read. “It’s worth noting that people parking in this way often don’t see any option, because there are no spaces available in the parking lane.”

To deal with this upcoming issue, CCRA recommends “creating one or two loading zone spaces per block in areas such as Pine and Spruce from Broad Street to 22nd Street, where there are bike lanes and where the parking lane is almost always at 100% occupancy or higher.” The loading spaces would revert to regular spaces overnight.

CCRA also noted that a survey was conducted and 83% of respondents agreed with the idea.

The Bicycle Coalition worked with Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson in 2019 to create a law that allows for free loading zones on blocks with bike lanes—incentivizing businesses to get new loading zones instead of allowing their customers and delivery drivers to park in bike and bus lanes.

These changes won’t fix the parking issue, of course. Free and inexpensive parking will continue to wreak havoc on cities.

Until we come to terms with what free street parking and millions of parking spaces on our streets have done, real changes can’t occur. But in the meantime, if enforcement like this is successful, there may be more incentive to do the right thing in the future. ◆

MAKE IT A

Local Holiday from LOCAL FARMS to LOCAL FINDS

W E AV E R S W AY

542 Carpenter Lane

www.weaversway.coop D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP H ILLY.COM 9

urban naturalist

Newly Adapted Birding group meets in more accessible locations to observe with all the senses by bernard brown

O

n a cold february morning, a new birding group huddled up at the John James Audubon Center in Audubon, Montgomery County.

Though there’s nothing remarkable about birders getting together at the museum, the former home of America’s most famous birder, what was remarkable was what they were celebrating—the launch of a more accessible kind of group.

Founder of Adapted Birding Katie Samson described the attendees: “Two people in motorized wheelchairs, one on crutches, one in a manual chair, one person who is an arm amputee, two service dogs and a couple fam10 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 20 21

ily members.”

The group observed a variety of birds including a red-shouldered hawk, crows and a pileated woodpecker.

Samson, a Radnor native, got into birding while living in Arizona after graduate school. “I went out birding with my boyfriend at the time, and he showed me what they look like through a spotting scope,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Holy [cow]!’ There’s something pretty awesome about that.”

Samson, 42, had been an athlete and a hiker before her spinal cord injury at age 20.

“When I would go out after my injury into nature, there’s only so far you can go

on macadam,” she says. “Birding felt like an amazing way I could appreciate nature.”

By day Samson serves as the director of education for Art-Reach, an organization that works to expand accessibility in the arts, and is a fan of Birdability, which launched in 2020. Birdability is a national program that works to ensure that “the birding community and the outdoors are welcoming, inclusive, safe and accessible for everybody.” She wished there was something similar focused on the Philadelphia area.

“So I just reached out to folks: Philly Touch Tours, Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports [PCAS]. I talked to some people at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital,” she recounts. “I’m not trying to universalize the experience, but I tried to include a lot of voices.”

There are a lot of ways that birding outings can impose barriers to people with disabilities. For example, birders can focus P HOTO G RAP HY BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS

Adapted Birding Founder Katie Samson observes birds at Concourse Lake, a stormwater reservoir in Fairmount Park.

excessively on observing birds visually, excluding those who can’t use binoculars but who can observe birds by their calls and songs. Parks often have trails with uneven surfaces, and “accessible” might mean different things to someone in a manual wheelchair versus a motorized wheelchair.

Samson has been actively reviewing the accessibility of birding sites for Birdability’s crowdsourced map, which is a collaboration with the National Audubon Society.

The drive for accessible birding resonated with Isabel Bohn, cofounder and board president of PCAS, which provides adapted sports, such as rowing and skiing, to people with disabilities.

“One of the original participants in our rowing program was an avid birder,” Bohn says. “She came down to row and would sit

on the dock with her binoculars. And that’s when I got started, probably 1984, but not really serious. I was excited if I saw a heron or an egret.”

Bohn was thrilled to hear Samson’s idea and immediately jumped on board.

“I don’t know why we didn’t think of it earlier,” Bohn says.

Many of the programs at PCAS have been paused during the pandemic, but birding was something participants could do outside while socially distanced.

They picked the Great Backyard Bird Count, an annual citizen science event, as the kickoff for the new adapted birding program, and engaged a birding guide who had experience working with people with disabilities.

Trips to other accessible parks followed, including the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum and Stoneleigh. “People come out of the woodwork when you build it with them in mind,” Samson says.

Kevin Cook got involved with PCAS about three years ago when he took a woodworking class. From there he started kayaking, but that program was paused by the pandemic.

“So I was looking for something to do,” he says. Cook, who was already a birder, attended the birding trip to John Heinz.

“Having a disability is stressful and messes with you. Being able to do something and just be able to turn your brain off and look at birds is relaxing,” he says. “Birds are everywhere. It’s a matter of opening your eyes, or opening your ears first.”

Although finding accessible birding venues is essential, so is engaging all the senses.

“Some might not be able to use binoculars, so how do you pay attention to calls [and] chip notes?” Samson asks. The typical birding event can involve rapid-fire identification of new birds that pop into view, and Samson emphasized the need to slow down.

“What can you learn without grabbing the binoculars for every bird that flies by?” she asks. “But [instead] really spending time with that one warbler and learning about the warbler experience?” ◆ Adapted Birding is on pause for the winter, but they plan to resume outings in the spring.

To get involved in adapted sports, visit centeronline.com.

D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HILLY.COM 1 1

water

health agency chief program officer and a licensed clinical social worker.

As a Germantown resident, she felt drawn to lead poetry workshops for the Philadelphia Water Department's Wingo-WHAT? program earlier this year. (“WHAT” stands for Water, History, Arts Activation, Transformation.)

The workshops aimed to help Germantown residents connect their experiences with water and flooding while learning about the history of the Wingohocking Creek—a once-major tributary of Frankford Creek, which flows into the Delaware River—as well as flooding resources.

The 21 miles of the Wingohocking and its tributaries were enclosed in sewers between 1870 and 1928, creating a system that drains nine square miles under Germantown, Mount Airy, Logan and Juniata Park.

After the system was put in place, flooding became a regular issue for surrounding residents beginning in the 1920s.

Still, Mayson's poetry workshops encouraged residents to process water in totality.

“I said, ‘Tell me about water. How have you experienced it in a way that was meaningful to you? How was it beautiful to you?’” she explains. “And then we got into, ‘What about water and its effect on the environment troubles you right now?’”

This interview has been edited for length, clarity and style.

Poet Laureate Trapeta Mayson led workshops to explore residents’ experiences with water, flooding and the Wingohocking Creek.

Let It Flow Poet laureate builds verses with her community at watershedcentered workshops by alexandra w. jones

T

rapeta mayson, Philadelphia's 2020-2021 poet laureate, knows that residents of Germantown can have mixed feelings about water.

The area is susceptible to flooding during heavy rains and the loss and

12 GR ID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 20 21

displacement that sometimes comes as a result.

A native of Liberia who grew up in North Philly and Germantown, Mayson—in addition to being a poet—is also an artist, a nonprofit administrator, a community mental

How did you find poetry?

I would say that poetry found me. I know it sounds kind of cliché when people say that, but as a writer it was something that just helped me be able to express my emotions and all the things that I was going through as a young woman growing up in the world.

I’ve been writing poetry since I was young, when I was in late elementary school through high school. I did not call myself a poet for a very long time, but I started publicly reading in my twenties while I was in college at Temple.

And what kinds of topics do you usually write about?

A lot of my work is concerned with amplifying or really enlarging platforms where voices are marginalized or not heard. I’ve P HOTO G RAP HY BY RACHAE L WARRI NER

worked a lot on immigrant issues and how they impact people, particularly people of color, particularly Black people. I write about justice. I write about gentrification. I write about love and also about community.

So what interested you about the opportunity to work with the Water Department on Wingo-WHAT?

One, the fact that the utility company was looking for an artist to work with them and share in the experience of educating and engaging the public. The thing that drew me in the most was that they really were focused on finding somebody who had a deeply rooted community engagement practice.

That’s my work. It has always been like, “How do I make poetry accessible?” I am known for doing workshops in community venues everywhere from neighborhood blocks to institutions to homeless shelters.

Were you already kind of in the know about the water system and the Wingohocking Creek?

I was aware of flooding. I was also really aware of littering and how that impacts the watershed and water systems. That’s a very big thing to me. I’ve been involved in a lot of community cleanup work and just civic work, so I knew about that. But I did not know the real history of the Wingohocking and the depth of that history.

Would you be able to summarize the history of the Wingohocking?

The Water Department provided the education at these events. But from what I understand, the Wingohocking was at one point in our city a series of open creeks.

Our understanding is that, at some point, people began using it for litter, almost like an open sewer system, which was a health hazard. So at the time they decided that they would close these creeks, cover them up. But now, when it rains heavily or there’s a flash flood situation, there’s not enough room to hold the water and the sewer overflows. That contributes to the flooding that impacts Germantown, along with other things like not cleaning our water system’s drains, which can impede the flow of the water to the sewer, especially if the water is coming quickly.

What were the reactions of the Germantown community members who showed up to these workshops to this history?

I did a number of workshops in different places, so we got different reactions. There were a couple at Awbury Arboretum, I did one at the Coleman Library and one at the intersection of Crittenden and Haines streets.

The responses were overwhelmingly positive. Especially when the participants were children and families. Parents said to me that they thought this was really a unique way to get kids interested in the environment.

I also added musicians to the project, Monette Sudler and Karen Smith, and they really helped lift the project and help the audience enter into it a lot easier.

When we did the workshop at the library, my focus there was on using Bessie Smith’s “Backwater Blues” as sort of the foundation for writing blues poems about flooding.

It was right after Hurricane Ida. That was a song Bessie Smith wrote in response to a flooding event that had happened in her community in the early 1900s that really destroyed a large number of African American people’s land and their lives.

We cried in that workshop. Well, I cried.

We had residents guided to write the blues poems, and they were writing about their flooding experiences and about the impact of climate change. One woman actually got up and performed her blues poem with the band, dancing. It was just so beautiful, but it was still really sad, you know?

It seems very empowering for residents if they’re able to engage on a personal level.

What kinds of other experiences did they bring up surrounding water?

They brought up their experiences with flooding mostly. Some of the workshops captured the direct experience with flooding and what it meant for them. I remember a woman speaking about all her family memories just going and losing those memories it took years to compile—wedding photos and all these things that had just been destroyed.

But I also want to talk about the balance here. One of the exercises that I do even before we get into flooding and climate change and all these things—I ask them

about their first experience with water. We read poems where water is celebrated. We read the Lucille Clifton poem “blessing the boats.” People love that poem. Then I asked them to share their first water memory in a five-line poem.

You’re hearing people talking about being allowed to play out in the rain. Having a lake in the area where they grew up in. Going swimming at the public pool. Conjuring up all these images of water that’s beautiful.

And then by the time we enter into how flooding and things like that impact them, I feel like there’s more of a balance. It wasn’t just focused on: “Tell me about the flooding.

What happened to you? What did you lose?”

Have you written about water before this?

My poet laureate project is called the Healing Verse Philly Poetry Line, so I talk a lot about healing. For me, healing is synonymous, at least sometimes, with water. So while I haven’t written directly about water, I reference it a lot, I reference cleansing. But I don’t have a specific poem about it outside of what we created in the workshop.

It sounds like there are so many different things that water can mean to you.

Yeah. This is such an extraordinary project because I even got to explore my own water memories and explore different ways to engage people around that. Water is such a fluid topic and you can do so much.

Did these workshops shift your perspective about how you see the city’s waterways or the city’s water issues?

It made me more of an advocate, even more so in an environmental sense. It also gave me a greater level of respect for the Water Department and the work it does beyond just providing us water. I learned so much about what they do educationally.

Do you think having led these events will influence your poetic works moving forward?

It will influence my work a lot more. The way that the community was thinking about flooding, I want to explore that. This whole idea of loss and what happens in these situations, that’s going to show up in my writing.

I want to be able to really capture these sorts of stories through poetry. ◆ D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 13

city healing

Seeing Is Believing

aims to help solve that problem.

A lifelong educator, El-Mekki nearly missed becoming a teacher. “I was on my way to law There are not enough Black educators in our schools. This organization school,” he says. “I made a comis working to change that by constance garcia-barrio mitment to be an activist, and I ears ago, my parents told Miss Teachers,” published by the National Buwanted to effect change through the legal Farber, a white 60ish teacher at reau of Economic Research in 2017, show system. Then the parent of a friend, Mother the elementary school in our Black that Black students who have Black teachers Cynthia Moultrie, told me about a program working-class neighborhood, that in elementary school fare better. recruiting Black teachers. Thanks to that when my brother and I graduated It’s also crucial for “white students to program, I saw that I could be an activist they would enroll us in a junior high prosee teachers of color in leadership roles … through teaching.” gram for gifted students. in their classrooms and communities” to In 2014, El-Mekki launched The Fel“There’s a Hebrew element at that counter distorted images in the media, aclowship: Black Male Educators for Social school,” Miss Farber said, “and your chilcording to former Secretary of Education Justice, an organization to help recruit and dren won’t make it.”

John King Jr. retain Black male educators in Greater PhilMy folks ignored her.

But schools in Philly and nationwide face adelphia. (According to the Stanford GSE, Fast-forward 15 years: My brother had a roadblock: too few Black teachers.

Black men account for 2% of U.S. teachers.) graduated from Harvard Law School and “In Philadelphia more than half the stuThen El-Mekki took things a step furI’d earned a Ph.D. from the University of dents are Black while barely a quarter of the ther. “I couldn’t stop thinking about what Pennsylvania. teachers are,” El-Mekki says. The Center it would … take to build a national Black Today, many white teachers still envision small lives for their Black students.

“It’s about the way you see other people’s children,” says native Philadelphian Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, aka the Center. President Obama and Oprah Winfrey praised El-Mekki for the huge strides his students made during his tenure as principal of Mastery Charter School Shoemaker Campus from 2008 to 2019.

The Shoemaker students’ success underscores what research has shown: Teachers of color expect—and get—more from students of color, according to a report cited in “The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce,” published by the U.S. Department of Education in 2016.

“Many students of color see improved academic performance, increased graduation rates, lower likelihood of suspensions and higher rates of college matriculation when … taught by Black teachers,” says Michael Hines, assistant professor of education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE). “Additionally, many Black teachers come from the very communities they serve, giving them the deep roots and lasting comPhiladelphia mitments … critical to building successful native Sharif El-Mekki founded the Center schools.” for Black Educator A blizzard of other studies, including Development in 2019.

“The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race

Y

14 GRID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 2021

P HOTO G RAP HY BY CHRIS BAKER EVENS

teacher pipeline,” he says. “Our vision for the Center not only included Black women, but a framework rooted in Black history and Black pedagogical practices that supported the development of antiracist mindsets and … included competencies such as addressing microaggressions.”

El-Mekki launched the Center in 2019.

“We seek to revolutionize education by increasing exponentially the number of Black educators so that low-income Black children and other disenfranchised young people can reap the benefits of a quality public education,” he says.

The Center’s Black Teacher Pipeline cultivates young educators by giving them the experience of teaching in summer Freedom Schools that boost the literacy of first-, second- and third-graders. College and high school students teach in a six-week Afrocentric program, earn a stipend and receive three or six college credits.

“The students see the children’s academic progress and come to view themselves as activists,” El-Mekki says. “In 2021 we offered

a virtual site and added three in-person sites in Greater Philadelphia and Camden, enrolling a total of 233 scholars in Grades 1 through 3, a 120% increase from last year.”

For professional development the Center draws on a corps of seasoned administrators and teachers to help young educators and career changers, El-Mekki says. “We use a mix of instructional presentation, dynamic discussion and practice. Many of our mentors have helped turn schools around.”

Their policy work involves meeting with legislators at the city, state and federal levels to shape laws and decisions that can better public education for disadvantaged students. The Center co-sponsored Aspiring to Educate in 2019, a program designed to recruit and retain more diverse teachers and school administrators.

The Center also relies on partnerships to achieve its goals.

“We’re looking for like-minded partners who believe that Black educators can play a powerful role in uplifting the profession and the city’s children,” El-Mekki says. “For

In Philadelphia more than half the students are Black while barely a quarter of the teachers are.”

— s harif el-mekki, founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development Sharif El-Mekki speaks with a student at Mastery Charter School Shoemaker Campus, where he served as principal from 2008 to 2019.

FURTHER READING

• “Respecting Educator Activists of Color: The Anti-Racist Guide to Teacher Retention,” published by the Center and the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium

example, we work with the United Negro College Fund to provide scholarships for future educators.”

John Bailey, 20, a student at the Community College of Baltimore County, taught a virtual Freedom School class this summer.

“The experience confirmed my desire to become a teacher,” he says.

Bailey learned highly fruitful ways to approach Black students. “We don’t kick scholars out of class [for misbehavior]. We use restorative practices like taking students aside and talking with them.”

For Horace Ryans III, 19, a Morehouse College student, Southwest Philly resident and Freedom School teacher this year, the power of an encouraging classroom climate stood out. “I gained [insights] from simply being with students everyday in a loving environment.”

Freedom School prepares children for success, their families say. “Thanks to Freedom School, [my granddaughter] knows prefixes, suffixes and root words, and she’s only going into second grade,” says Toya Algarin, 59, of Germantown.

El-Mekki counts on the community for support. “Community members, including high school students, took part in focus groups that helped us design our curriculum,” he says.

Community activist Elaine Wells, 54, volunteers in the Center’s program for parents, offering tips on how to get the best results from schools.

“I have three Black sons who went through the Philadelphia school system,” she says. “I share what I learned during those years.”

“What we’re doing isn’t new,” El-Mekki says. “We’re giving a 2020s update to an idea James Baldwin voiced years ago: to teach Black children is a revolutionary act.” ◆ To learn more about the Center, which welcomes donations and sponsorships, visit thecenterblacked.org.

• “To Be Who We Are: Black Teachers on Creating Affirming School Cultures,”

by Teach Plus

D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 1 5

OUTSIDE THE BINARY Queer clients are safe to be themselves at Germantown backyard barber studio

story by nichole currie

T

—

ucked into a little corner of Germantown, there’s a backyard garden unlike any other.

At the entrance there’s a blackand-white sign with a combined triangle and circle logo. After passing through 16 GRID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 2021

photography by rachael warriner

the barbed-wire gate, there’s a stone path passing several trees and plants along the side of the house.

In the back, a circular garden encases a firepit with seating for friends and guests.

Adjacent to the garden is an elevated stone

porch, separated by a black metal fence. The patio holds a black leather barber chair, a collection of clippers, and hair and skin products. This is Odabu.

Odabu is a queer barber studio started

by Billy Green in 2017 that provides stylish haircuts, handmade botanical products, and most importantly, a safe space for queer and nonbinary people.

During warmer months at the intimate studio, you can see bees fly from flower to flower and a fence adorned with lights that accentuate a border of flowers and herbs, including bayberry, mountain mint, echinacea and sumac. During the winter, cuts are available inside for masked clients who show proof of vaccination.

Green says they started Odabu to build a space where nonbinary people can feel comfortable.

“I really was beginning to recognize how binary the hair industry is,” Green says.

“So we built a space to build relationships in which the guests can feel affirmed—not only in the space, but also in themselves and how they’re presenting.”

“It is so magical,” client Chía Cotansuca says of visiting Odabu. “I could feel the energy exuding from the space.”

How It Started Odabu began four years ago when Green started cutting their own hair. At the time, they were living in a warehouse downtown and began garnering attention for their styles. They say people began asking for

Left: Billy Green of Odabu poses behind the chair of their backyard barber studio, designed with queer and nonbinary clientele in mind. Green sells house-made serums and bar soaps, among other products.

haircuts after seeing their work.

As time progressed, Green took their skills to The Attic Youth Center, an LGBTQ organization aimed at building community, reducing isolation and combating homophobia. There, Green says they began giving free haircuts to the youth while also “open[ing] up a platform to talk about being young, being queer and what that means in terms of aesthetics, and how we present ourselves with our hair.”

Soon Green decided to move toward opening their own studio. The Lancaster County native, who holds an architecture degree from Temple University, set out for training at Philadelphia Barber School and Premier Barber Institute.

“From there, everyone was like, ‘Oh, you studied art. You can do this design on my head, right?’” Green says. “So I was like, ‘Sure.’”

After completing training, Green opened Odabu in Chinatown.

“What the name comes down to is the fact that I was trying to find something that didn’t exist or cross-reference anything else on the internet,” says Green. “Specifically wanting something with three syllables.

Something that felt very open. Something with a lot of vowels.”

When the pandemic struck in 2020 Odabu was forced to close its doors. After several months of reflection, Green decided to reopen in their backyard in Germantown.

“During the pandemic I was beginning to realize that green space and open space

are really important to me and my community,” Green says. “I think a lot of the queer community is starting to move this way.”

Today, Odabu has a growing Instagram presence (@odabu_), where they are known for striking black-and-white haircut profiles that feature geometric designs.

“I’m thinking about hair as almost a block of wood in the same sense I was when I was sculpting,” Green says. “Understanding that each type of wood has a different grain and texture in the same way that hair has different growth patterns and grain patterns and texture and density—and kind of using geometry to carve out organic forms and shapes.”

Before Cotansuca became a client, they admired Green’s work from afar. They found Odabu on Instagram in 2017 and began following their work and growth. Once Cotansuca moved to Philadelphia, more and more of their friends began visiting Green.

“Finally, I just decided to book an appointment with them,” Cotansuca says.

“And I’m really glad and grateful that I did because it blossomed into a friendship.”

The Larger Conversation Odabu also serves as a space for nonbinary Philadelphians to experience an environment they never found in conventional barbershops and salons. Green says the dialogue at Odabu is open and accepting of all, compared to a typical shop.

Since the first opening, Darius Alexander has visited Odabu and says he has always

felt welcome. Before services with Green, Alexander says services in traditional barbershops felt uninviting and a space for censorship.

“I think barbershops, especially barbershops of color, are not the most welcoming—or the energy isn’t that welcoming,” Alexander says.

Alexander says he felt like he had to pretend at traditional barbershops. Within Odabu, he feels like he can be open about his personal life and discuss relationships without clashing with barbershop culture.

“There’s no hyper-masculinity, so I can just live my life and my truth and not feel like I have to just sit down and wait for the service to be over,” Alexander says.

Cotansuca says their experience with salons and barbershops was similar.

“I basically have to pretend to be like what they perceive, or try to use that as a teaching moment to disclose my gender identity,” Cotansuca says. “But also, I’m just trying to get a haircut. I don’t necessarily want to have to tell who I am as a person.”

Cut to the Future As Odabu continues to grow, Green plans to use the outdoor studio for events that elevate the apothecary element of the studio.

Green, who loves gardening and herbalism and once worked in landscaping, formulates products from the plants in their garden.

When clients began asking for advice about hair and skin products, Green did not feel confident sending clients to store shelves for products with harmful ingredients and unsustainable packaging. Instead, they decided to create their own small-batch line of serums, soaps and candles using sustainable packaging—recycled glass and no plastic.

Today Odabu is by appointment only and the studio location is confidential to protect clients and the space itself. “My goal really is to create a safe space for the queer community,” Green says. ◆ D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 17

give the gift of functional beauty with our organic linen textiles. beautiful • sustainable • practical

kitchengardentextiles.com

GIVE THE GIFT OF This holiday season, subscribe to the magazine you love.

SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE STARTING AT

JUST $2.99/MONTH gridphilly.com/subscribe We appreciate your continued support!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS and THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING

LOCAL INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM! 18 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 20 21

D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 1 9

20 GRID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM BE R 2021

SMOOTH LIKE BUTTER

Lab-designed seed butter caters to prenatal and postpartum nutritional needs story by claire marie porter

O

n february 9, Kensington resident Kristin Dudley texted her mother Pamela without context: “Hey mom—could you do something for me? Write the words ‘Mother Butter’ on a piece of paper, one time in cursive, the next just regular—take a pic and send it to me?”

“Ok … ” her mother responded.

Dudley, a self-described “serial entrepreneur,” wanted the logo of her fledgling company Mother Butter to be as organic and unassuming as its model product—a velvety, golden-brown seed butter that combines six ingredients, a little science and lots of maternal inspiration.

A trained fashion designer, Dudley had

—

photography by rachael warriner

been thinking more about nutrition and the body during her pregnancy in 2018.

She began dreaming about a snack line that would match the varying nutritional needs throughout a person’s fertility and menstruation journeys.

She took her initial idea for menstrual cycle-driven snacks to the Drexel University Food Lab, a food product design and culinary innovation lab developed and led by Jonathan Deutsch, a professor in the Food and Hospitality Management Department.

The lab, which had recently merged with Drexel’s Department of Nutrition Sciences, focuses on sustainability and does a lot of work with startups featuring healthier,

Opposite page: Kristin Dudley Emmanuel Scipio, founder of and her son Alfie make Scipio’s Commercial Cleaning, seed butter deliveries in is both a tenant at BOK and an Kensington. Mother Butter’s alum of the vocational school. label uses Dudley’s own mother’s handwriting.

more environmentally friendly food products, says Deutsch, who has helped launch notable products like Soom, a tahini company, and Saint Lucifer Spice Company.

When a client comes in with an idea, the lab handles the consumer research and culinary development side of the project, through qualitative and ethnographic work like focus groups and surveys, Deutsch says. It is a mostly student-run operation.

“It’s a mixture of art and science,” Deutsch says. “People don’t know what they don’t know. If I say to you, ‘What do you want for lunch today?’ … you think in terms of what you can imagine … But if I say, ‘I created this new dish, I think you’ll like it’ … that’s sort of what we do.”

Typically, the best projects are open-minded ones, he adds, pitched without boundaries. Dudley’s was one such idea; she wanted to do something related to women’s health and seeds, but was flexible with the outcome. Which was good, because her inceptive idea—a snack line that correlated with the menstrual cycle—was quickly shot down by consumer trials as being too complicated and conceptual, requiring too much explanation.

“You have about five seconds to explain what this product is and why they need it,” Deutsch explains. “The typical consumer doesn’t read the back of the cereal box in the store.” Decisions are instantaneous about whether something goes in the cart or not, he adds, so the less messaging the better.

“So we kept going, and trusted the process,” Dudley says. They learned from the Nutrition Sciences Department that there is not much research done on how diet affects fertility and reproduction, but they did encounter a study about the Mediterranean diet, its emphasis on seeds and their benefits for women’s vitality and fertility.

“That was sort of our key to keep pressing forward,” Dudley says.

There is a lot of mythologizing when it D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HILLY.COM 21

comes to healthy nutrients. Some is rooted in evidence, some is not, Deutsch says. “We wanted to design something that was evidence-based, but also could be a multi-occasion food. Designed for women. Enjoyed by anyone.”

They talked to a lot of women in focus groups about their snacking habits and what they look for. Two themes popped up—the first, a need for satiety, especially in the late afternoon. The second was “guilty pleasure activities,” particularly a proclivity toward peanut butter and late-night Nutella cravings.

“We leveraged those ideas and met in the middle of healthy and indulgent,” says Deutsch. “Good ideas are easy, but to get them to be adopted [into someone’s lifestyle], that’s the art.”

They continued the process, came up with 50 different snack concepts and brought some of them to a focus group. All along they had been using a seed-based butter as a binding agent for the snacks.

At the last minute, toward the end of their 12-week trial period, Dudley decided to pull out the seed butter and have the group taste it on its own. They loved it.

“Am I about to be the seed butter lady?”

Dudley remembers asking herself. “And it all fell into place.”

Composed of four seeds—pumpkin, sunflower, flax and sesame—and a little coconut sugar, this seed butter was the wholesome, filling and nutritious snack they had been searching for.

The four seeds involved are associated with “ seed cycling,” a method of eating different seeds at different times of the month to regulate estrogen and progesterone, thus easing the symptoms associated with menopause and menstruation. The trick is that the seeds must be ground up.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence for seed cycling, but not much scientific, even though the seeds’ nutritional value (which includes zinc, protein, iron, omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium, folate and fiber) has been well established.

Dudley realized that the product would serve the health of women as well as her community.

The trial and error continued, even after the product was honed in on. The color especially went through a lot of tweaks, from brownish, to beige, to the nutty, slightly olive hue it is currently. The texture was 22 GRID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 20 21

Dudley delivers Mother Butter to customers’ homes, and collects and reuses glass jars.

Part of my journey here is leaning into motherhood.”

— kristin dudley, Mother Butter founder

also a struggle. The initial work was done in Deutsch’s home kitchen, using his personal blender, and it wasn’t smooth butter.

Dudley eventually acquired a powerful commercial blender that gives the butter its creamy stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth smoothness.

“Mother Butter just seems to resonate,” Deutsch says. They found that secret sauce, he says, where a consumer can look at it and recognize, “Okay, it’s like peanut butter, but it’s made from seeds, and it’s better for me in some way,” in under a couple seconds.

I asked Deutsch, gastronome that he is,

what makes this seed butter stand apart from others on the shelves. He said​​it’s lightly sweetened with coconut sugar, which makes Mother Butter a pleasing indulgence as well as a butter. An added benefit is the “health halo” coconut sugar wields on a label, he says.

“The majority of the seed butters [on the market] were developed to replace peanut butter—Mother Butter was not. It’s its own animal,” Dudley adds.

Deutsch agrees. “I’m really proud of where this came from,” he says, “which was some sort of vague, date-nut-seedcluster-cookie-type snack thing … all the

way through. The women who gave us feedback were really instrumental. I don’t think there’s anything quite like it. I think that is why we do the kind of work we do.”

I was curious to taste it for myself. For some, Dudley says, it’s reminiscent of halva, for others it’s tahini or pumpkin.

“You’ll have to see for yourself,” she said.

For me, the flavor was nostalgic. And then I remembered where I’d tasted something like it—the salty roasted pepitas my mother would make with our harvested pumpkins. As a recently postpartum mother myself, a product that is wholly satisfying, that will feed both your body and your baby and do it quickly and conveniently between diaper changes is hard to come by.

Dudley had visions of becoming a modern-day milk delivery person for her neighbors, delivering the seed butter to people’s homes and collecting and reusing their glass jars. The idea took off, especially for those with peanut and nut allergies, and for families with kids who can’t bring nut butters to school.

Megan Vetri, a mother of three, dance movement therapist and certified health coach, is a regular customer of Dudley’s.

“As a 43-year-old woman, I’m always looking for ways to balance my hormones and meet important nutritional needs,” she says. “The ingredients in Mother Butter are incredibly nourishing for mothers and for general female hormonal health. I also love supporting small local businesses, particularly those that are female-owned.”

The product was launched on Mother’s Day 2021. Dudley has a handful of subscribers, and does indeed deliver and pick up their glass jars. She also pops up at farmers markets, and can be found on six shelves, including Riverwards Produce Market, REAP Mini Mart, Forin Café and the South Philly Food Co-op.

She has plans to expand Mother Butter into other healthy snacks, and adding additional flourishes to the original recipe, like chocolate.

Dudley has hired one part-time employee who is also a mother. Her long-term goals for the company include having a parent-friendly work environment, one that

eschews the traditional 9-to-5 and has more reasonable hours for parents with kids in school, such as shifts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m..

She is in the process of moving her kitchen into the Old Pine Community Center, a space that also offers programs for children, further aligning with her desire to have a space for childcare for her employees.

In the meantime, she wants the company to remain informed by multigenerational storytelling and wisdom. Her social media shares stories of women, particularly grandmothers, who have inspired her and her brand, and whose handwriting has also been used on the Mother Butter label, though the main logo remains Dudley’s own mother’s work.

Dudley emphasizes that, for her, the company is as much about these women as it is about seed butter.

“Part of my journey here is leaning into motherhood,” she says. “Leaning into being a mother and also being a mother to a business. Mother Butter is my outlet and my art. My way of caring for fellow mothers and fellow caretakers, and processing it all myself.” ◆

REDEFINE THE FUTURE COLLEGE of ARCHITECTURE and the BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Our Master of Urban Design – Future Cities is educating the next generation of urban designers, architects and researchers in the development of sustainable, healthy and smart cities and communities. Collaboration with the Jefferson Institute for Smart and Healthy Cities offers students unparalleled opportunities for research and design experience.

LEARN MORE and APPLY TODAY at Jefferson.edu/Grid.

D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 23

Alisa Shargorodsky, founder of ECHO Systems, partnered with Weavers Way Co-op to develop a system to sell soup in reusable containers.

RADICAL REUSE

Consultant helps companies eliminate single-use plastic containers story by patrick kerr

A

lisa shargorodsky, the founder of ECHO Systems, hears it time and time again when she tells someone she works in the waste industry: “Oh, are you guys into recycling?”

They’re not.

“We’re not here to advocate for recycling,” she’ll say. “We are building infrastructure for radical reuse.”

ECHO Systems envisions a world where food service establishments and grocers can have easy access to reusables.

“We help the grocery store implement principles in-house,” Shargorodsky says.

She points to her company’s longstanding partnership with Weavers Way 24 GRID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM BE R 20 21

—

photography by chris baker evens

Co-op, a relationship in which ECHO recently moved from consultant to service provider.

It began on Earth Day 2021 with a Weaver’s Way product that has sold well throughout the pandemic: soup.

“The co-op sold 20,000 of these 32-ounce soups during the pandemic,” Shargorodsky explains.

The single-use plastic container was a hot target for the reusable program.

Standing in the soup aisle at Weavers Way, customers now have the option of a one-time use container or a reusable choice. ​​ “The reusable container has a $2 deposit attached to it,” Shargorodsky explains.

“When they go to check out they pay the $2 rate and when they bring that unit back, they get $2 [credit] either tied to their next purchase, or they can just get their money back.”

She says that 47% of customers return the reusable container, and if they don’t bring it back, they have already paid for it. According to data collected by ECHO from May through August, customers have chosen reusables 1,100 times.

“We’re diverting that material completely from the waste stream, meaning that the recycling doesn’t go into the recycling bin,”​​ Shargorodsky says.

Tiffin, a local Indian restaurant chain, has adopted a slightly different reusable

takeout model, independent of ECHO. “If you make people pay upfront, then they feel like they’re invested in that and they’re more likely to bring their containers back, rather than giving something away for free and then charging them later, which is like the model that Tiffin is currently doing,” Shargorodsky explains. “They give away containers to anybody who wants it and then if they don’t bring them back in six weeks, they charge them.”

By charging upfront, ECHO Systems avoids the customer management work.

“You don’t need to send out reminder emails and things like that,” she says. “I just think we’re all getting bombarded with enough email.”

According to Shargorodsky, a disposable

unit with a takeback program doesn’t work for a number of different reasons. One, because that single-use material is not intended for long-term use. If you repeatedly apply high heat and a commercial dishwashing process to a single-use container, polymer will start to degrade and become a health hazard.

Weavers Way currently notes to customers that recent supply-chain shortages have meant that glass jars are often hard to get ahold of, so when customers return containers to the store, they can help fill in these supply-chain gaps. While the program’s implementation was initially delayed because of concerns raised about reusable containers spreading COVID-19, it was again cleared to roll out after epidemiologists determined

The container takeback system at Weavers Way provides a way for buyers to avoid single-use plastic.

that such containers did not pose a risk to public health. ECHO Systems cleans all of the glass soup containers in a commercial facility.

According to Shargorodsky, reusing containers in this way is better than other options, such as using compostable containers.

“Composting is better than just regular things like supporting the fossil fuel economy, like Solo cups … but it’s not necessarily the best thing. The best thing is completely keeping [containers] out of the waste stream altogether.” ◆

D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 25

LEARNED BY HEART Students create their own educational and entrepreneurial opportunities at We Love Philly story by nic esposito

W

h e n you a p p r oac h t h e storefronts at 52nd and Warren streets, just off Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia, you might notice the handcrafted facades of One Art Community Center’s Earthship-style building, which uses glass bottles and cans placed in cement to provide structure and light.

In the center’s backyard, a group of students are working on another hands-on project—converting a shipping container into an affordable housing unit.

These students—who come from all four Philadelphia campuses of One Bright Ray Community High School—are working with the youth development nonprofit We Love Philly to learn real-world skills that help them grow in both their personal and professional lives. The idea of shipping container homes originated during the 2020–2021 school year after the students learned about issues like gentrification and affordable housing.

The students of that class did the research into how a shipping container house could be a solution to Philadelphia’s lack of affordable housing, and then did all of the fundraising to make the project a reality.

Although the class of 2021 would not be around to actually work on the project, they saw this as a way to create an opportunity for the class of 2022.

It’s since provided another level of handson education for students like Semya Dennis.

Dennis, a senior at One Bright Ray, didn’t get involved with We Love Philly until September. Now she’s one of the most involved students, and isn’t just learning how to swing a hammer to build out the shipping container.

26 GRID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM BE R 2021

—

photography by rachael warriner

She and her classmates are reading blueprints, navigating permitting and scoping out the real estate world in the hopes of ultimately selling the shipping container home as affordable housing and profit sharing the proceeds. As part of the curriculum, We Love Philly helped the students set up bank accounts with American Heritage Credit Union, where all proceeds will be deposited, and students will get financial literacy instruction.

During the week in November when she was interviewed, Dennis had worked on the house, toured a real estate office and completed journal reflections on gentrification.

while he was working as a history and social studies teacher at One Bright Ray’s Elmwood campus. The school has four high school campuses throughout Philadelphia and a unique student base: it accepts 16- to 21-year-olds who either lack the credits to graduate on time or have aged out of the standard graduation track altogether.

Aponte valued his time in the classroom, he explains, but yearned to give his students community resources and real-world experience—two things textbooks don’t provide.

To start, he partnered with the nonprofit Students Run Philly Style, which engages students through mentorship and running.

I got to see how quick students learn outside of a school and how much more open they are to take risks.”

— c arl os ap onte , founder and executive director of We Love Philly

It’s the type of education she prefers— student-led, as opposed to traditional.

“Some kids don’t want to come to school and learn because they don’t see the value in it, because they don’t feel like they have a say,” she explains. “Make space for them to have a say in what they learn.”

We Love Philly Executive Director Carlos Aponte says it was a series of relationships based on community action that brought him and his team of students to One Art’s backyard.

Aponte founded We Love Philly in 2018

He was immediately inspired by the impact.

“I got to see how quick students learn outside of a school and how much more open they are to take risks,” he notes in an understated tone that just barely conceals the excitement of his discovery.

This mindset led him to another idea, one that had students questioning his sanity.

Every Wednesday, Aponte would schedule time in the school day for what he called “Circle Up,” where he would pose a question to the kids about the people they were and the people they wanted to be.

Often, Aponte played them videos he had

We Love Philly Executive Director Carlos Aponte (in green sweatshirt) and students are building out shipping container to sell as affordable housing.

D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 27

taken of people in Kensington, where he grew up, who were experiencing homelessness and addiction, including interviewing them about their lives.

Some of Aponte’s students were also from Kensington and had their own, often negative, interactions with people experiencing homelessness and addiction, hence the questioning of Aponte’s sanity. But as the students saw these people open up on camera to tell their stories, they were able to view the struggles of these people, and their own personal traumas, in a new light.

When he was four, Aponte’s family was shaken up by multiple traumas, including separation and addiction, that led to him moving in with his grandmother.

By the time he was eight years old, his family had reached some stable ground, and Aponte moved back in with his mother and stepfather in Tacony.

The newfound stability, however, did not erase the trauma.

As Aponte openly admits, “I used to not be a good person. I used to manipulate and hurt a lot of people and lie, cheat and steal.

But then I went through my own personal awakening and dealt with my trauma. When you grow up in Philly you go through a lot of 28 GRID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM BE R 20 21

traumatic things and in order to go through that journey of self-discovery, what helped me was to turn my pain into passion.”

That passion manifested in We Love Philly’s mission of not only using multimedia to teach kids to relate to the world, but to also train them on how to use multimedia in an entrepreneurial way.

As Aponte describes it, “The journey of entrepreneurship is the total exploration of you. In fact, it’s often the realization that sometimes it’s you versus you. It’s something that with time, and with practice, and with forgiveness of self, you can start to become better.”

We Love Philly started as a labor of love for Aponte—a volunteer-run nonprofit that placed One Bright Ray students with other nonprofits throughout Philadelphia in need of media help.

Students worked on projects involving digital branding and media marketing and gained experience doing interviews that turned into a podcast that We Love Philly also founded.

Aponte recalls how many students would be resistant to putting themselves out there at first, as they have dealt with a lot of

mistrust. Even though these students had talent to market, they didn’t have the confidence to risk rejection, he explains. But We Love Philly afforded them an opportunity for self-discovery.

Thayid Wilson was one of these students.

After graduating from One Bright Ray and We Love Philly in 2020, he is now working with the organization, creating video assets and screen-printing T-shirts. Wilson also cowrote a grant with Aponte to attend South

by Southwest in Austin, Texas, to speak on a panel about innovation in the classroom.

“The education I wanted just wasn’t in the average school system,” Wilson explains.

“We Love Philly was my way to learn about the real world and what I had to do in the future … Now I’m hands-on outside of the classroom.”

After the 2020–2021 school year wrapped up, Aponte left One Bright Ray to focus solely on We Love Philly full-time, becoming the organization’s first employee and its executive director.

One Bright Ray continues to be the organization’s main feeder for students, and students can still get high school credits due to Aponte’s continued accreditation,

neighborhood of Kensington showed him how important it would be for his students to focus their attention and service on a specific community and really put down their roots—a priority that led them to One Art to volunteer for the construction of the Earthship’s facade.

In the spring of 2021 he used One Art’s space to host a prom for One Bright Ray graduates who were going to miss their prom due to the pandemic, solidifying One Art as their homebase.

Malaika Gilpin, a cofounder of One Art, says meeting Aponte “was like reconnecting with my little brother. He’s family!”

Malaika and Ewan “One” Gilpin are co-founders and co-directors of One Art Community Center, where We Love Philly operates programs for high school students.

The education I wanted just wasn’t in the average school system.

We Love Philly was my way to learn about the real world...”

— t hayid wils on, We Love Philly member but much of his time with students is now spent outside of the school day.

At the same time, We Love Philly’s focus has also shifted.

The first shift was an expansion of its curriculum. The We Love Philly curriculum still promotes branding, marketing, digital media and podcast skills, but the website now also states that students will learn skills that “will enable them to take

ownership of their community (home ownership, local laws, taxes, etc.).” All of these goals are on display with the shipping container project.

This expansion also coincided with the desire to focus their work within a specific neighborhood.

Although We Love Philly had good partnerships with nonprofits throughout the city, Aponte’s experiences in his own

One Art is a space that fosters innovation in and of itself.

Founded in 2001 by the late Benjamin Dyett Reid, whose life was tragically cut short only a few years later, the center is now run by Gilpin, Reid’s wife at the time of his 2005 passing, and her current husband Ewan “One” Gilpin.

It’s one of those places that makes a person recognize why it’s so special to live in Philadelphia. What started as a junkyard is now a holistic community center that houses storefronts, including the mother and daughter–run Black-owned plant store Plants and People, as well as the InI Collective, which sells handmade goods created by BIPOC partners.

The backside of the buildings house a coworking space, community kitchen and a screen printing shop—and an area once used for lumber storage is now an event space that, prior to the pandemic, hosted 50 events and meetings per year.

Farther back is a community farm that supplies many of the vegetables for the kitchen, complete with a horse that acts as a main attraction for neighbors, along with hens and ducks and one glorious peacock that catches the attention of every visitor.

It may seem like there’s too much going on at One Art to keep everything straight, but Gilpin sees more value in the space being a cyclical experience rather than a straight line.

“There’s something powerful when people see honey in InI [Collective] and find out it was harvested from bees at the farm, or they eat a meal from our community kitchen and find out the veggies came from the garden,” she says. “It creates a connection here.”

Gilpin stood as she said this, motioning D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HI LLY.COM 29

over to farm, her flowing dress brushing against the ground and almost blending her into the landscape around her.

From that cyclical connection comes the operative word that seemed to be at the heart of missions of both One Art and We Love Philly: healing.

Aponte uses every inch of One Art to fulfill this mission of healing at We Love Philly.

Aside from having the space to build out the shipping container, he uses the center’s outdoor garden to foster students’ meditation and mindfulness practices, encouraging them to reflect both on their work and their lives.

And as both he and Gilpin profess, One Art is a place where students can put down their phones, stop looking at social media and be immersed in nature as they learn, not just for a field trip, but for their entire day.

Aponte acknowledges that this is a bit ironic for an organization still heavily focused on multimedia skills. But he views mindfulness and being outdoors as a muscle that his students need to flex everyday if they want to be successful.

Gilpin, who holds a master’s degree in multicultural education, agrees that getting kids outside should be the rule, not the exception.

As a parent of two adults, a high school-

Aponte laughs with We Love Philly members in One Art’s outdoor space.

30 GR ID P H I L LY.CO M DEC EM BE R 20 21

er and an elementary student, she has witnessed the positive effect of exposing kids to green spaces in schoolyards or other natural areas to “listen to the earth.” Gilpin insists that this can’t just be for the occasional excursion, but rather a consistent part of the school day.

Moving forward, Aponte hopes to see more organizations like his spring up to help connect students to their communities and vice versa.

He’s seeing more and more hands-on education advocates being invited to bring their talents into schools throughout Philadelphia.

Within the past six years, the School District of Philadelphia and the Kenney Administration have partnered on 17 community schools that strive to create that school and community connection, and in other places it’s the friends groups and parent associations aiming to do the same work.

But, like getting kids outdoors on a consistent basis, connecting schools to the community can’t be the exception. Aponte further points out that efforts must be made to connect community and business leaders who look like the students they are talking to and who sometimes might not be the typical person asked to speak at a school. The

school district must make the extra effort to map these community resources and bring them to the students, Aponte explains.

As Dennis has learned, a successful entrepreneur doesn’t design a system by dictating to the user how the product should be designed; the successful entrepreneur listens to the user and designs a product that fits their needs.

Dennis believes the same should be done for the lived experience of students in the school district, many of whom exist with traumas both past and present.

Dennis certainly recognizes how unique We Love Philly is. When asked what sets it apart from other workforce development programs, she answers, “I feel safe here and I actually want to be here.”

As for what Dennis is working on next, she responded that she would be attending the DivaGirl Brunch Bash, part of the She Means Biz business conference, an opportunity that came to her through We Love Philly.

And would she be speaking there?

“No,” she responds humbly, “I’m just going there to learn.” ◆ we love philly is hosting a Holiday Party & Student Showcase on December 19.

Buy tickets at welovephilly.org

local businesses ready to serve GROCERY

BOOK STORE

COWORKING

Kimberton Whole Foods

Books & Stuff

Penn’s Treaty Coworking

A family-owned and operated natural grocery store with six locations in Southeastern PA, selling local, organic and sustainablygrown food for over thirty years.

Multicultural, Afrocentric books, gifts, and surprise packages for all!

Founded in 2014, and recently online only at booksandstuff.info and teespring.com/

Modern affordable coworking located at Billy Penn Studios, in Olde Kensington.

Featuring Airthinx Air Quality Monitoring. Desks start at $199. Private offices at $500. Learn more at pennstreaty.co

kimbertonwholefoods.com

booksandstuff-stuff

Café and Cider House are

open 7 days a week!

8am to 5pm

Enjoy Fresh Air,

Beautiful Scenery, and Great Wholesome Food with your friends and family!

1 Boathouse Row • 215-978-0900

cosmicfoods.com

D ECE M B E R 20 21 G R I DP HILLY.COM 31

E m p o w e r i n g P h i l ad e l p hi a pu b li c sch oo l yo u th t o r e ac h t he i r h i g h es t p ot e nt i al o n an d o ff t h e w a ter

PHI L A D E LP HI A C I T Y RO W I NG A d iv e r s e a n d p a ss ion at e n ew g ener ati o n i s read y to s h i n e . Wi ll y ou hel p mak e i t p o ssib l e?

If yo u b e l ie ve in th e powe r of sports to c hange l ives and think th e S chu yl kill R ive r sh ould b e shared and acc essibl e to ev eryon e , we 'd like t o hea r from yo u!

Vis i t w w w . ph i l ad e l p hi a c it y ro wi ng .o r g/ gi v e o r s ca n th e Q R c o d e to d o n at e Donate

Volunteer

I nt e r e st e d i n v ol un t e e r in g w i th P CR ? Ema i l ge o r g e@ ph il a de lp h ia c it yr ow in g. o rg L e ar n mo r e ab ou t o u r pr og ra ms a nd s erv i c es at w ww . p h il a d e l ph i a ci ty r o wi ng . or g/ p r ogr am s

Learn More

32 GRID P H IL LY.CO M DEC EM B E R 2021

f o t f i G Give the Gift cards aren't just $$$ for zero-waste essentials and delivery. Recipients also get exclusive merch FREE.

S D R A C T F I G P O SH Give the gift of saving the planet.

Gee Paegar, MES ‘18 Energy Efficiency Program Analyst, Philadelphia Gas Works

Turn your passion for the environment into a fulfilling career Make the most of industry connections and Ivy League academics Virtual Café Join the MES program team from 12-1 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month for an online chat about your interests and goals.

Log in with us.

www.facebook.com/UPennEES

In Penn’s Master of Environmental Studies program, you train for success in a field where you can make a real, practical difference.

Built with flexibility in mind, the program’s innovative, interdisciplinary approach allows you to create your own focus, or choose from six established concentrations: environmental biology, environmental policy, environmental resilience and adaptation, environmental sustainability, resource management, and urban environment.

Gain hands-on experience through internships and fieldwork opportunities while studying on a green campus in the heart of Philadelphia. And enjoy the option of full- or part-time enrollment to suit your schedule.

@Penn_MES_MSAG

Take the next step in your environmental career at

www.upenn.edu/grid